As she left the room, he fell to the floor--insensible for the second
time that day. She heard the crashing fall--she knew that he was in
danger; but her heart was hardened, and she would not look back. The
only thing she did was to call Jenkins before she left the house and
send him to his master. And then she went out into the street, and said
to herself that she would never enter the house again.
Jenkins went up to the drawing-room, and found Mr. Lepel lying on the
floor. He and his wife managed with some difficulty to get him back to
bed. Then they sent for the Doctor. But, when the Doctor came, he shook
his head, and looked very serious over Hubert's state. A relapse had
taken place; he was delirious again; and no one could say whether he
would recover from this second attack. Cynthia was asked for at once;
but Cynthia was nowhere to be found.
"She will come back, no doubt, sir," Jenkins said.
"I hope she will," the Doctor answered, "for Mr. Lepel's chances are
considerably lessened by her absence."
But the night passed, and the next day followed, and the next; but
Cynthia never came.
In the meantime there was one person in the house who knew more of her
than she chose to say. Miss Sabina Meldreth had been keeping her eye, by
Mrs. Vane's orders, upon Cynthia West. She had listened at the door
during the conversation between Enid and Hubert, but without much
result. Their voices had been subdued, and she had gained nothing for
her pains. But it was somewhat different during the interview between
Cynthia and Hubert. The emotion of the two speakers had been rather too
difficult to repress. Some few of Hubert's words, as well as Cynthia's
passionate sobs, had reached her ears; and Cynthia's last sentences,
spoken in a clear penetrating voice, had not been lost on her. She was
behind the folding-door between the two rooms when Cynthia made her
exit. Sabina Meldreth's heart beat with excitement. Miss West would go
to her father, would she? Then she, Sabina, would follow her--would
track the felon to his hiding-place! The hint that Hubert could clear
him if he would was lost upon her in the delight of this discovery. She
could not afford to miss this opportunity of pleasing Mrs. Vane and
earning three hundred pounds. She followed Cynthia down-stairs, seized a
hat from a peg in the hall, and walked out into the street.
It was already dark, but the girl's tall graceful figure was easily
discernible at some little distance. Miss Meldreth followed her
hurriedly; she was determined to lose no chance of discovering Westwood
and delivering him up to the authorities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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